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Obama's Op-Ed

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A few comments before I return to hacking and wheezing. This thinking needs work:

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.

That's pretty dismal. Are you seeing the word "universal" in there? Because I'm not. Isn't it more than a little bizarre to focus on people who are "at risk" of losing coverage, without mentioning those who have already lost it? And as any marketer will tell you, Obama's trying to sell me a drill ("health records," "insurance") when I want a hole (health care).

And he's pushing the post-partisan schtick even harder. Well, dance with who brung ya, but is that really the problem?

People who never had health insurance
People who are whoring themselves to keep health insurance
People who have health insurance and are still being denied services
Companies that may fail because of the cost of providing health insurance

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.

Let's face it - the only thing Obama had going for him was his ability to read off a teleprompter. Now they don't even let him do that ('cause there might be an unscripted question thrown at him) - so he e-mails his speeches and expect everyone to read them.

figured he had to have a teleprompter bcz he is still learning how to give a speech without one. He had the cadences going, the flow, when I turned on the TV noticed he had the head tilt--and then I caught a camera angle showing the teleprompter screen. Confirmation.

Even in short statements, he tends to mess up a tad. Nothing practice -- and really knowing what he wants to say can't improve. I think the latter may be the most pertinent aspect. I'm not sure he knows what he wants to say bcz he doesn't know what he wants to do or can do or should do.

Remember when the teleprompter had the wrong speech on for one of Bill Clinton's State of the Union speeches? And most people never realized there was any problem? Clinton gave a coherent, organized, on point speech for several minutes as the problem was resolved. I think he's probably the only prez we've had recently who could have done that.

They've done so much for Progressive causes with their Plans A, B, & C, a whole alphabet soup of successes, the advances they have achieved for universal healthcare, the economic support and jobs training for the disadvantaged, the nutritional programs for poor children, the cleanup of lead from poor neighborhoods, the shift from drug criminalization to treatment, the huge improvements in providing mental health support, the massive advances in education funding and teacher training, the growth in union membership, the enlightened international trade deals that included worker rights and safety not to mention stopping import of goods made by child labor, and oh yeah let's don't forget the big bonus brainstorm of fucking the help and getting caught at it. Hard to know which achievement to praise most.

The only reason the Clinton years look good is because they were sandwiched between the complete disasters of Reagan/Bush and Bush Redux. Compared to that standard, who wouldn't look good? The fact is that neither one of them has ever done anything of lasting value for the people of this country while in office - not one damn thing. During the eight years of their presidency - eight pathetic years - they accomplished nothing more than a consolidation of the Reagan "revolution" including their singular domestic achievement, the dismantling of welfare, Reagan's great bugaboo, at the expense of the weakest and most vulnerable among us. That those times or the performance in office of either of the Clintons are held up now as some sort of Progressive paragon is a measure of how pathetically trivial and meaningless Progressive thinking has become.

Obama still has a long way to go before he screws up, pun intended, as badly as the Clintons did. He may well get there, with their generous help since they are both on board and Hillary couldn't wait to ditch that boring Senate job to be Obama's butt-girl, but if the Clintons' performances are the standard we're holding Obama to then the battle for Progressive interests is already lost.

Never send a boy to do a man's job. Hopefully, Obama will grow up soon. What didn't you like about Clinton's presidency? The peace or the prosperity? Yes, it's a well-known expression, but many of us were just fine with him. Play hard-to-get and end up being disappointed. *shrug*

So far, Obama doesn't have Clinton's smooth-talking ways, his knowledge or his experience, which is why I backed Hillary. I hope he's a fast learner.

Stand for something or stand for nothing. "Centrist" is fine by me, as long as he gets to dictate the terms and the terms are left of center.

The country was fed up with war, and there would have been zip for support if Clinton had been inclined. As to the prosperity, it was no great shakes and a big portion of it was a mirage, the tech bubble that burst just as he left office. Much of the job growth came as a result of simply not doing much in the way of macroeconomic policy one way or the other; after the shock doctrine under Reagan, just staying out of the way and letting the economy expand was, take your pick, smart or lucky.

Other than the pain caused to the poor, especially poor children, what pisses me off the most is the lost opportunity. Eight years, and what do we have to show for it now? What did the Clintons' build that lasted? The answer is nothing. What a waste.

"You just like to argue, BIO"
If all I wanted was to be on the cheer squad, instead of writing I'd be playing with my pompoms.

i just cooked a steak in the flames coming out of my monitor here, and roasted some ears of corn in the embers.

... the advances they have achieved for universal healthcare, the economic support and jobs training for the disadvantaged, the nutritional programs for poor children, the cleanup of lead from poor neighborhoods, the shift from drug criminalization to treatment, the huge improvements in providing mental health support, the massive advances in education funding and teacher training, the growth in union membership, the enlightened international trade deals that included worker rights and safety not to mention stopping import of goods made by child labor ...

... eight pathetic years - they accomplished nothing more than a consolidation of the Reagan "revolution" including their singular domestic achievement, the dismantling of welfare, Reagan's great bugaboo, at the expense of the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

As for the post-partisanship (in general): the man has a death wish and he doesn't mind taking the rest of the country with him. He is failing to seize the huge political opportunity before him on universal health care, fundamentally changing the economy, and setting the stage for liberal domination for the next generation. This crisis is a goddamn mess of epic proportions, Congress is Democratic, and conservatism is in a tailspin meaning he had free reign to do what others could only dream of and yet here he is trying to muster support for the (anemic) stimulus bill, which should be a gimme. If he can't do that in his first few weeks of office, what chance does he have on anything else?

that is similar to your comment. The discussion centered around how the Obama generation is past the discussion of the old battles of the 60s through 90s. You know, those silly ideas like gay rights, civil rights, woman's right to choose, you know, those silly ol' things that Mom and Dad harped on. We're past that and the idealogical battles now. Just like we're post partisan now. Thank goodness. I'm sick of fighting with the republicans. Peace, man.

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